As long as human being need food to survive, there has been ways to preserve food for longer period of time. Modern refrigeration is one part of making food last much longer.
Why anyone want to preserve food?
- One can stretch his or her budget much longer, if food last longer.
- If you have home garden or buy it from farmer’s market, you can preserve seasonal food for later use. Preserving food fresh is healthier option when used fresh food.
- One can retain the nutritional value of food by preserving it right.
- If you preserve your own food, it will be chemical and toxin free.
- It will be less processed if home made, making it much more healthy. For example drying food does not take away its nutrients.
- It is cheaper to do it at home, compared to buy preserved food. It is easy to do.
- You can make wide variety of preserved food such as jellys, jams and sun dried tomatoes.
Ways to Preserve Food:
There are several ways to preserve food and here are some of popular and easy ways to do it at home for anyone with little skill. People have been preserving food before fridge was available and here are some ways we can preserve food and save money and our health at the same time.
1. Canning
Canning is one of the oldest and traditional way to preserve any type of food. You will need to heat up the food and jar both, killing germs. Then cooling and sealing the food in jar for later use. There are canning tools and canning methods to follow properly. It can be time consuming at the start but it is well worth it.
Video of Canning Procedure:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7sFBIurNKI
2. Freezing
One of the easiest way to preserve food is to freeze it. Once you cook or boil the vegetables or other food it can be freeze it for later use. Many people batch cook and divide food in to small trays to eat when coming from work on weekdays. Not all food can be frozen, so be careful of it. Generally speaking, egg and milk products are not suitable for freezing.
3. Drying Food:
One can dry food in sun or in oven to last longer. There are also drying racks one can buy to dry fruits, tomatoes and other vegetables. Other popular ways to dry food is by baking, sun drying, dehydrating, air drying and smoking the food.
4. Vacume sealing
There is also method of vacuum sealing cooked food in glass jars or plastic bags via using vacuum sealer product. There are several type available in market. In this technique, air is removed from the food, hence making it lasting longer as air is one way, food get mold or get bad.
5. Other ways to preserve food:
Long time reader and blog friendBetsy suggested a additional way to preserve food so I am adding it here (edit) . Thanks Betsy. Other ways of preserving food include smoking (good for meat and tomatoes) and fermenting (for instance Sauerkraut).
How do you preserve food?
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Image Source: nahysa.blogspot.com
I never learned how to preserve food properly. I have bought drying rack to dry food and tried to dry mango and apple slices but I always prefer fresh fruits compared to dry ones. But I think it is always good idea to have some food preserve though. Informative post.
Good article, Preeti. Other ways of preserving food include smoking (good for meats and tomatoes) and fermenting (for instance Sauerkraut). Very practical information. Lots of people are turning to raising and preserving their own food in these uncertain economic times!
I love cooking so, I love preserving the food by canning. Specially after the fall harvest of tomatoes by making tomato sauce to use up later on pasta or lasagna dishes.
I like that you used the video as canning is not well known for many.
Pam
I simply am clueless when it comes to preserving food. The most I have done is freezing lentils which seems to be fine for now. My wife want to learn how to do canning so we can keep some food later without freezing, I will ask her to check out here.
Zengirl,
This is good idea, I use vacuum seal to preserve food, I have used drying as preserving fruits and tomatoes. Canning I tried once but it was bit complicated for me, I should try again after reading your post. Thanks for encouraging me.
Monica,
Vacuumsealing food works great, I have not used it as much. Canning can be time consuming but works very well. Good luck, let me know how it turns out.
Hari,
Freezing lentil and daal is good way for weeknight meals and works very well. I think you are doing well. Canning can be learned with little effort, although I am no expert myself and learning it. Good luck. hope your wife will like canning.
Pam,
Making tomato sauces to use up later is great idea. Looks like you love cooking which is great thing for being healthy and eating well. The video of canning is not by me and from you tube expert but I found through google search. I thought it might be useful to readers.
Betsy,
Thank you for adding suggestions on smoking food and fermenting it. It is sure valuable input. I will add it the post. Yes, we can preserve food to save money, and eat well at the same time.
Mira,
Drying mango and apple seem like a good idea as you can munch on these dried fruits when you are on go. One does not need to do it all, but one or two methods will work too. I am glad you found this informative.
I don’t do much preserving of food because I like to have mine fresh. However, I can understand the benefits of preservation. It aids in convenience and most certainly, preserving food ourselves is better than buying canned food from the supermarket. One ingredient that I preserve food with is using salt. I keep bottled ground chilli, added with salt, in my fridge.
Evelyn,
Fresh food is always best choice. However, if you want to eat some food out of season or on go, preserve food comes to rescue. For example, if you have garden and plenty of tomatoes left after you ate all you can, share all you can, one can make tomato sauce to use it later.
I think salt is great preserver and you seemed to be doing well stocking up!
I always love your practical and educational blogs, Preeti. We live in such a “throw away” society that it is empowering to be mindful of our food source. This is a great lesson of appreciation for all those things that we easily take for granted.
Thanks for telling us how to preserve food. Many a times we waste food, which we can actually preserve it.
To be frank I use drying and freezing for preserving food, but others methods you mentioned here, I do use.
Rob,
You’re too kind. Yes, we in America tend to throw away quite bit of food which can be used by us or other people. We do take food supply for granted here.
drjupitar,
Drying and freezing is great way to preserve food. I know many people preserve food in salt brine or oil by making various types of pickles in Korean, Indian and Many south Asian nations. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
What a timely post! Summer’s a great time to do some preserving, and although I can’t say I have ever done much of it, your tips are really great and will be of great use if I ever should. Thanks, Preeti!
Vaishali,
I am sure with your lovely cooking that you, there will hardly be any leftover for you to freeze or preserve to use later on! 🙂 I do little bit of preserving but not as much as some people, if you do, let me know how it goes.
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